Gus Malzahn explains why he long ago decided on a no-cussing approach to coaching

Following Auburn’s 40-17 win over then top-ranked Georgia back on November 11, 2017 Gus Malzahn was looking for his wife, according to an interview he gave AL.com, when cameras captured him saying “We whipped the dog crap out of them, didn’t we?”

Considering the more colorful language he could have chosen to use – most coaches who believed they were off-camera would have chosen any array of four-letter words instead of crap – many found that comment interesting, and it became bulletin board material for Kirby Smart’s squad. On December 2nd, 2017 it all came full circle when the two squads faced off again in the SEC title game and Malzahn’s Tigers fell to UGA 28-7 the second time around.

In the latest Driving Plainsinterview series from 247Sports, Gus talks about the moment back in 1994 when he made the conscious decision to cut swearing out of his vocabulary as a coach working with kids.

It’s an issue coaches stand firmly on both sides of the fence on, and Gus explains how he came to his decision:

“This was something, I guess, 1994, I started looking at coaching as ministry and that’s really when things started changing for me as far as understanding that I’ve got great influence with my players, and just trying to be the example I need to be.”

“That’s when everything changed for me and that’s what I tried to do and what I still try to do to this day. Understand that as a coach we have a big responsibility to be examples for our players and that’s really my number one responsibility at the end of the day when it is all said and done.”